


One Quiet Night

by duCOQUELICOT



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Element Swap, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:22:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21663643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duCOQUELICOT/pseuds/duCOQUELICOT
Summary: Prompt #77, where Zuko and Katara swap elements - but I just use it as an excuse to have them talk.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 117
Collections: Zutara Week Throwbacks





	One Quiet Night

It had started out insignificant enough. Katara had struggled a little bit when she was preparing dinner for the group. Swirling the soup around just didn't come as easy as usual. Nothing to worry about - she had used all her strength that day to nearly-but-not-actually kill her mother's murderer. She was tired. It was okay.

But the next morning, she felt worse. As if someone had called up a thick mist inside her brain that made it hard for her to connect with her own thoughts. Her muscles were tense, and she had to focus really hard on her bending. 

"Sokka, there's a problem," she confided in her brother when she caught him alone in the Fire Lord's vast summer palace. He immediately grabbed his sword and turned around. "What's wrong?" he asked while scanning the empty hallway in front of him.

Katara sighed. "Nothing like that. It's about me."

"Oh." He looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "You're not having… you know… girl problems… that time of the month thingy?" 

Now she folded her arms in front of her chest. "If that was the case, no point in telling you. You wouldn't be able to handle that." She ignored the offended look on his face. "It's about my bending. It's getting weaker. Or I'm getting weaker. Maybe I'm getting sick. I don't know." 

Now Sokka just looked worried. "Are you sure? Because Zuko just told me he had similar problems. Maybe you're both coming down with something." Carefully, he took a couple steps backward. "It might be contagious. We should tell the rest and decide what to do. With the comet arriving in just a couple of days, I don't think we should take any more risks." 

And so they gathered their little gang around on the beach for a meeting. Zuko and Katara stood next to each other. Katara had folded her arms again, her mouth a thin line. Zuko just looked as moody as usual. The rest just looked at them. 

"Well?" Zuko's voice had become even huskier. Katara could feel her eyes burning. They were dry, and something dark and soothing was pulling here eyelids. She could  _ really _ use a nap. 

"I think we should put you in quarantine," said Sokka while stroking his chin. "There are enough rooms in this house to keep you guys away from us until we know what's going on. We'll bring you food and water, but you'll have to entertain each other for a little bit."

"We all know that they'll never last a day in a room together," said Toph and grinned. Aang looked uncomfortable. 

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked Sokka. "I mean, what if something happens and we need to escape?"

"Then we'll all get out in time, I promise," said Sokka. "But for now, we can't risk you catching whatever it is they have" - he pointed at Katara and Zuko, who just glared back - "and so we need to keep them away for a little bit. It's not like we're sending them into the woods or something." 

Katara wanted to protest this stupid idea, but all her energy was drained from her body. The fog, which had previously only existed in her brain, had entered the edges of her vision as well. She frowned. 

"Fine. I guess we have no choice. Aang has to stay safe." She glanced aside to look at Zuko. "But I'm not going to entertain you."

"Don't worry, you won't have to," Zuko said. He was so quiet she almost couldn't hear him. He must feel the same way she did, she realized, and instantly felt bad for him. 

\--

They set up camp in one of the larger rooms in the house. Suki helped Katara bring up her stuff.

"You know, I don't think this is necessary at all," Suki said to her friend. Katara just closed her eyes for a second.

"I think so too, but at the same time I feel terrible," she said. Her voice was raspy. "Maybe it'll just help if I can get some rest for a change."

Zuko entered the room, dumped his sleeping bag and his dao swords in one corner, and then sat on the floor. He massaged his temples.

"Headache?" asked Suki, not unfriendly. Zuko just nodded. 

"Well, I guess I should lie down," said Katara. She didn't really want Suki to leave, but she also didn't want to stay upright any longer than she needed to. So she nudged the other girl to the doorway, and then closed it after her.

Without saying anything to Zuko, she made herself comfortable in her sleeping bag and immediately fell asleep.

The nightmares were the strangest she had ever had. She was in a forest, and it caught on fire, and she tried to run away but she was pinned to the ground while the flames started enclosing her. Then, she was hanging on a ledge, and when she looked down, she could see the insides of a volcano. The ledge crumbled under her fingers, and she fell… Then, she was in the South Pole, in the middle of the ocean, on a tiny island of ice. She tried to bend her way to the mainland, but nothing happened. It was as if her body had completely disconnected itself from her bending. 

She woke up and found herself sweating. Katara had a fever, no doubt - but she strangely felt better. Lighter. Something had flipped a switch inside her. She heard a groan, and when she pushed herself up on her elbows she could see Zuko shivering in his sleeping bag. He had a fever too, she realized.

"Are you okay? Do you need an extra blanket?" she asked him, but he didn't respond. Katara touched her forehead and gasped at how hot she was. She needed water. A jug stood on a table not too far from her, so she used her bending to get it to her. 

At least, that's what she tried. Instead, she produced a range of small flames.

Wait.

Katara opened her eyes wide and tried again. Reach for the water, feel its pull, make it come closer… She exhaled. Again, no water. But she did almost set her sleeping bag on fire.

She pinched herself to see if this was just a really, really bad dream, but it wasn't. 

"Zuko!" She tried not to yell at the obviously suffering boy, but she was freaking out and she could use some reassuring words now. 

He seemed to hear her now and looked up. "What's wrong?" He sounded as if he was really far away. 

Katara couldn't explain. "Look", she simply said. For the third time, she tried to bend the water in the jug closer. For the third time, fire instead of water appeared. Now it was Zuko's turn to be shocked.

"What just happened? Am I dreaming?"

"I wish we were dreaming," Katara said dryly. "But we're not. And I'm using all my mental capacities to prevent myself from going insane right now, so I could use some help here."

"What do you want me to do?" 

"You and I have the same thing. So you try to bend now." 

Zuko shrugged, closed his eyes and pushed his breath to his body. He extended his fist, but instead of producing a puff of flames, the water in the jug splashed on the floor. 

They looked at each other without knowing what to say.

\--

"This is madness. What are we going to do? The comet is only days away and we're both not able to use the element we master." Katara paced the room fast. Coming up with a plan was so much easier when Sokka was the one doing all the strategic thinking.

"Maybe it's some kind of punishment," said Zuko. Katara looked at him. 

"Not everything is a punishment, Zuko." 

"Well, maybe it's something the spirits did to us. Maybe they're upset because I used to disguise myself as the Blue Spirit." Zuko frowned. "Did you ever do something like that?"

Katara nodded. "I dressed up as the Painted Lady, a Fire Nation spirit, to save a village. But I don't think the spirits were really upset about that. At least, the real Painted Lady didn't seem to be when she thanked me."

She sat down on the floor again. They had moved their sleeping bags closer together to talk. Absentmindedly, Zuko moved his hand up and down. The water droplets on the floor rose and fell with his movements. 

"You know, if you control your wrist movement a bit more, you'll be able to coordinate those drops better," Katara said, and then abruptly stopped talking. The wrinkle between her brows deepened.

"Well, I guess you could try to guide your breath to your body, so that you can produce a bigger flame," Zuko responded without looking at her. He was now focusing intently on perfecting his wrist movement. 

After a couple minutes of trying, he stopped and laid flat on his back.

"I'll never be good at bending," he said, starting at the ceiling. "Not as good as my sister, at least. Or as good as you. Or Aang. You're all talented. I just have to work really hard."

Katara snorted. "Raw talent is not a replacement for practice, as my waterbending teacher once said. Believe me, I worked hard to get where I am today."

"I didn't mean to say you don't deserve it," Zuko backpedalled. "I just..." his voice fell. "I just wish I would stop letting people down all the time." 

They were talking about his uncle now, Katara realized. She decided to lay down next to the boy on the floor. She extended her hand towards the ceiling, knowing he would see it. Then, she focused on her breathing, trying to guide her breath through her limbs as she would usually try to feel the pull of the water inside her veins. 

She exhaled again, softly, and a fireblast almost set the ceiling on fire. 

"Watch out!" Zuko got up, moved up his arms in a wave-like motion and pushed upward. He had managed to gather most of the water from the jug and the ground and gave it enough momentum for it to splash against the small flames. They went out immediately. 

"Not bad," Katara said, and she found herself smiling. "You're getting the hang of it already."

"Uncle taught me to study bending techniques from other nations," Zuko said sheepishly. "I guess I learned more from our fights than I realized." 

Now it was Katara's turn to fall silent. She touched her mother's necklace.

"Have you ever known what it feels like to be a kid? Because I haven't. Not really. Definitely not after mom died. Imagine, instead of having to fight other kids and other people, we could all just live in peace together. Have fun. Wouldn't you rather have your mother back here and give up all your bending and fighting?"

Zuko didn't say anything. He didn't have to. They both knew the answer.

\--

Through the windows they could see the sky was slowly changing from deep blue to a dark grey. Katara could swear she heard birds, too.

"They'll probably forget to give us new water or food," murmured Zuko. 

"I don't think we have to stay inside any longer," answered Katara. But neither of them moved. They were still lying on their backs, next to each other, looking at a point beyond the ceiling.

"What are we going to do?" Katara made a fist, then snapped her fingers to create a spark. Zuko lazily twirled his finger around, moving the remaining water in the jug upward in a small column.

"Maybe we shouldn't do anything," he said, after a long silence. "Maybe this was a sign, and we should figure out what it means."

"We already went over this," answered Katara, sounding a little impatient. "It's not punishment, I'm sure of it."

"I think you're right. But it could still be something else." 

"Could be."

Zuko touched his scar. "I always thought fire was the opposite element of water," he said. "But maybe we're just looking at it all wrong. Maybe there's no such thing as opposites. Uncle said he had come up with a fire bending technique by studying waterbenders. So now that we're forced to use each other's element..."

"We might learn something about each other," said Katara to finish his sentence. She pained her thoughts. "I would have suspected that fire bending was very different from water bending. But what you said about guiding your breath to your body is very similar to what I do when I connect with the water, feel its pull inside me, and use that pull to bend." 

She felt, more than saw, Zuko nod. "I noticed that too. But something ís different. I feel different. Calmer."

Indeed, Katara thought, Zuko was much less grumpy than usual. Instead, she was the one feeling agitated and restless. "I guess being in touch with your element for a water bender means being calm. For a fire bender it must be feeling like you're about to burst into flames," she said teasingly.

Zuko made a face, but didn't say anything in return. They both watched the sky turn dove grey. The world seemed to be slowly waking up. 

"I don't think that's true. I might be true for people who learned to firebend based on anger," Zuko finally answered. "But when the dragons taught us how to firebend the true way, there was no anger. Just life. Energy."

"I was just teasing you," said Katara. "I really have no idea what I'm talking about. We might never figure out why this happened."

"I hope I get my bending back," said Zuko. Then he smiled. "But I'm glad we got to talk a little bit more because of this."

"Me too. You're not a bad kid, Zuko," Katara said. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you when you joined us."

But the young prince shook his head. "You don't have to apologize. You had every reason to be mad at me. To hate me. I deserved that from you."

Katara turned her head sideways to look at him. He felt her gaze and met here eyes with his own. 

As they looked at each other silently, Katara traced the contours of his face with her eyes, trying to capture the details. His hair, that used to be tied up in that stupid ponytail but now almost reached his eyes. His scar, the skin still red and tender. His eyes, golden with orange specks in them - Katara blushed. She shouldn't be staring at him like that.

"I'm sorry," he said when she averted her eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you're alright," she said, but didn't dare to look at him again. 

"You can tell me if something is wrong," he offered.

"I know." 

"Katara?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad we're friends now." Zuko paused. "We áre friends, right?"

Katara smiled. "We are. I promise."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I've used the prompt a little freely, I know, but I prefer writing conversations over actions and so I always end up with something like this. As always trying to remain as IC as possible.


End file.
